Folks Are Hating On Obama’s Forthcoming Presidential Library In Chicago

A University of Chicago group is raising their voices.

Barack Obama‘s presidential library has drawn a lot of attention from Chicagoans, but not all of it has been positive. Ambitious plans for the center coming to the city’s South Side have prompted debates, with some folks straight up hating on it, The Guardian reported.

The modern center, priced at $1.5 billion, will include a basketball court, a yoga space and a test kitchen. But rather than following the way of traditional libraries with books and papers lining its shelves, Obama will only provide a digital archive as an alternative. This digital archive, along with other plans, has come under heavy criticism.

“Mr President, I’ve got to tell you: the renderings for your museum are … more likely to congeal than stir blood,” Ron Grossman, a Chicago Tribune columnist wrote recently. “Is [this] how you want to be remembered? As the healthy-eating and meditation-advocating president … That’s not how I want the story to come down to my grandchildren’s children.”

The presidential library, traditionally a passion project of sorts that honors U.S. leaders, is usually built in the former chief’s home state. Obama’s library will reflect his and wife Michelle Obama‘s long-running campaign for folks to have healthier and more active lives. It is billed as a fun space planned for the city’s Jackson Park, with its completion slated for 2021.